Chinese National Allegedly Slaps Employee

Mr Emmanuel Amstrong Mensah, General Secretary of the General Petroleum, Chemical and Transport Workers Union (GPCTWU), has urged the Odorkor Police to continue with the alleged assault case in which a Chinese national allegedly slapped one of his workers with Caitec Group of Companies at Mallam in Accra last Friday for no apparent reason. Mr Mensah alleged that his outfit had received several complaints of unfair dismissals and molestation on the part of Chinese workers towards their Ghanaian counterparts in the company, some of which had been reported to the Odorkor Police. He said, �As a Union we will not sit down for investors, be they local or foreign, to trample on the rights of workers operating in the jurisdiction of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), hence my appeal to the police to pursue the case to the letter to bring the Chinese worker to face the law.� He expressed the hope that issues raised concerning the attitudes of Chinese workers reported to the police would receive the necessary attention and urgency to ensure a healthy labour relation in the company. A welder and victim, Mr Eric Mensah, who was slapped by the Chinese whose name was only given as Mr Lee, at the Odorkor Police Station, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), confirmed the story on Friday. He said on the morning of Monday, September 1, 2009, when he reported for work, the warehouse was opened for them as usual to enable every worker to pick up his tools for work. Mr Mensah said it got to a point they needed a drilling machine to continue with what they were doing so he was sent by the supervisor to go for the machine from the warehouse. He alleged that when he went back to pick up the drilling machine, Mr Lee who was holding the keys to the place became annoyed questioning why he did not do that when he came to pick his tools earlier. Mr Mensah alleged that, �In the cause of expressing myself to him he slapped me without any provocation in the presence of some few workers in the yard and dismissed me not to report for work anymore.� Doctor�s report dated September 1, 2009 shown to the GNA indicate a swollen left chick, headache and pain on the left eye following a slap. The suspect has since been granted bail while investigations continue.